Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Coast
Świnoujście
The Świnoujście promenade (say "shvee-no-OOYSH-cheh") is the seafront walkway of this Polish spa town on the island of Usedom, running parallel to the beach from the harbor breakwater to the German border. Its big selling point: it continu…
Other
Szczawnica
Roughly 1,800 metres of promenade follow the Grajcarek stream from the lower station of the Palenica chairlift towards the Dunajec valley, and the town council calls it one of the longest promenades in Poland. It is the easiest way to get…
Nature
Poraj
Bird Island came about by chance: when the Warta river was dammed in 1978 and Poraj Reservoir was filled, a raised section of an old local road from Kuźnica Stara to Masłońskie was left above the water. Today it is a natural bird sanctuary…
Viewpoints
Kazimierz Dolny
From a grassy hill above Kazimierz Dolny you look out over a wide bend of the Vistula, the thatched roofs of Mięćmierz and, across the river, the village of Janowiec. Albrechtówka, once called Kamienna Góra (Stone Hill), combines one of th…
Viewpoints
Żerków
For years, visitors who came to the hill above Brzóstków in summer mostly saw maize. In 2019 the Żerków municipality, together with the State Forests, built a viewing platform here, restoring the view over the Warta glacial valley and the…
Viewpoints
Ostroszowice
The viewing platform below Wrona stands at about 429 m above sea level on a yellow-marked trail above the village of Ostroszowice, near Bielawa. Wrona itself (458 m) is the highest hill of the Niemcza-Strzelin Hills and one of the Crown of…
Nature
Siedlec
Everyone knows the Błędów Desert, but a few kilometres from Złoty Potok the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland has a second, much smaller "desert". The Siedlec Desert covers about 25 ha of open sand near the village of Siedlec, with dunes up to 30…
Nature
Augustów
The Augustów Primeval Forest is one of the largest continuous forests in Poland: more than 114,000 hectares on the Polish side of the border and about 160,000 including the parts in Lithuania and Belarus. Lakes, peat bogs and rivers lie hi…
Viewpoints
Zwardoń
The summit of Rachowiec is not covered by forest, and that is why this modest mountain above Zwardoń has some of the widest views in the area. Wielka Racza and Rycerzowa rise to the east, Slovakia's Malá Fatra range to the south and the Ba…
Nature
Radków
On some of the sandstone towers of the Radków Rocks you can still see inscriptions carved by the Silesian Forestry Society in the first half of the 20th century — traces of the time when these cliffs bore the German name Wünschelburger Leh…
Old towns & squares
Międzyrzecz
Every day at noon the town bugle call sounds from the tower of Międzyrzecz town hall. The pink-and-white building with its neo-Gothic spire stands in the middle of an irregular square, surrounded by townhouses and St Adalbert's Church. It…
Landmarks
Leszno
Leszno Town Hall (Leszno is pronounced roughly "LESH-no") stands in the middle of the market square of this small city in western Poland. With its tall clock tower and pale classical façades, it is the town's best-known landmark – a buildi…
Landmarks
Lubin
The white town hall with a copper-clad tower is the most recognisable building in Lubin, a town now known mainly for its copper mines. Inside is the Historical Museum, where you can step into a recreated flat of a mining family from the co…
Landmarks
Poznań
Poznań Town Hall (Ratusz, say "RAH-toosh") on the Old Market Square is one of the finest Renaissance town halls in Central Europe and the symbol of the city. Every day at noon two mechanical billy goats pop out above the clock and butt hea…
Nature
gmina Kosakowo
The Beka Nature Reserve (Rezerwat Beka, roughly "BEH-kah") protects rare coastal salt meadows on Puck Bay, at the old mouth of the Reda River, about 15 km (9 miles) north of Gdynia. Its caretakers at OTOP, the Polish BirdLife partner, call…
Nature
Jaworki
The Biała Woda valley in Jaworki looks today like a wild, meadow-filled corner of the Little Pieniny mountains, yet until 1947 a Rusyn village stood here. After its people were deported in Operation Vistula – the forced resettlement of Ukr…
Nature
Giżycko
In the heart of the Borecka Forest, between Giżycko and Olecko, lies the Borki reserve – the central and best-preserved part of one of the most valuable forests of the Masurian Lake District. It is a realm of oak–hornbeam–lime woodland and…
Nature
Jaworzno
The water in the Żabnik Valley is so clear that from the boardwalk you can see the sand on the bottom of the ponds. It comes from karst springs that rise in the Ciężkowice district on the eastern edge of Jaworzno and feed the Żabnik stream…
Nature
Kielce
Kadzielnia (pronounced "kah-JEL-nyah") in Kielce is a former limestone quarry right inside the city, now a geological nature reserve with dramatic rock walls, viewpoints, an underground cave route, a large open-air amphitheater and a zip l…
Nature
Lubawka
The Kruczy Kamień reserve protects the summit of Krucza Skała (681 m) and its southern slope, which drops in a cliff several dozen metres high into the Krucza Valley. It lies about 2.5 km south of the centre of Lubawka, in the Krucze Mount…
Nature
Racibórz
Eight ponds, dykes lined with century-old oaks and limes, and more than half of all bird species found in Poland. The Łężczok reserve on the edge of Racibórz and the Nędza district is a former Cistercian fish farm that since 1957 has belon…
Nature
Mikołajki
Lake Łuknajno (say "wook-NIGH-no"), about 5 km (3 miles) east of Mikołajki in Poland's Masurian Lake District, is a shallow, reed-fringed lake protected for its birds – above all the mute swan. It was the first site in Poland listed under…
Nature
Siedlec
Ostrężnik Nature Reserve covers just 4.1 ha, yet it holds a limestone rock riddled like Swiss cheese, the ruins of a mysterious 14th-century fortress and a spring that flows only when it pleases. It was created in 1960 to protect a patch o…
Nature
Złoty Potok
In Złoty Potok the Wiercica river is born in a beech forest among limestone rocks – one of them looks like a gateway, another is a cleft known as the Devil's Bridges. The Parkowe reserve has protected this corner of the Kraków-Częstochowa…